"You are on the wrong side of history"

"You are on the wrongside of history," the singer teaches. In other words, he feels that his opinion on some matter will prevail in the future, and whoever disagrees with him will be seen by the majority to be wrong later. Well, whoever was against communism seemed to be on the wrong side of history for about 70 years, before it fell. The Russian city of my wife had only one church left standing among over 3 million people. After communism went kaput, now there are several churches there. One of the most powerful photos I ever saw showed everyone giving a Heil Hitler salute, except for one man. He was sitting down with his arms folded, and it looked for sure that he was on the wrong side of history.

Harvard was the first university in the USA, and was established for the purpose of teaching Christian clergy, around 1630. In a few years several noticed that it was becoming more unitarian than Christian, teaching that God was one and Jesus and the Holy Spirit were not included, or if they were, they were trivial. Yale was begun to promote more historic Christianity. But by the year 1800, not a single student at Yale even claimed to be Christian. Many put on plays mocking Christianity. Princeton was more devout, at that time 2 students there professed to be Christian. All two of them seemed to be on the wrong side of history.

God of the Bible is outside of history and outside of time. He created time and history, to him the past and present and future are all the present. Before we make pronouncements on who or who is not on the wrong side of history, I suggest we get to know God who created all that is. All was created for and by Jesus Christ, and he is coming back to be the judge of all people. At some periods of time, many love and obey and worship him. At another particular time and place, very few do that. In our American culture, materialism and hedonism runs rampant and threatens to overwhelm the last traces of Christianity. But there will always be at least some who worship Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth. The concept of truth is laughable to those who worship themselves. But the one who says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" calls all to worship him as Lord and Savior, and then when he returns as the judge in the future, we will welcome him with joy and not dread.

Share this article

The Rev. Dr. Alden Marshall was converted as a boy, rededicated his life to Jesus at age 25, and went from rural (cut tobacco, put up hay) to urban (drove 18 wheelers, taught college, pastored in Montreal, Toronto, Gatlinburg, published more than 250 articles). C.S. Lewis mentioned that there were only four to five sins not attractive to him; Alden says he tries not to pretend to be any better! Send Alden an email at aldenandveronika@yahoo.com.